Sri Lanka PM Rajapaksa resigns, deposed Ranil' s return tomorrow

Ending the political crisis that affected the country since 26 October, Sri Lanka's purported PM Rajapaksa has resigned today 10am while speculation on a UNP-SLFP coalition too has begun to build up in capital Colombo.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is to take oath as Prime Minister tomorrow 16th Sunday 10am after his brief phone conversation with President on 14 December.

After Rajapaksa's resignation on Saturday morning, it was speculated that he would now become the Leader of the Opposition- and Nimal Siripala MP to become the Chief Organizer of the Opposition.

Speculation was rife in Colombo political circles after resignation of Mahinda that 6 Ministerial posts are likely to be given to six SLFP MPs who are to cross over to the new UNF government. The crossovers are on an individual basis and not on a party basis. Discussions between these MPs and UNP have been a success, reports said.

It is also now reported that three UNP MPs who crossed over to Rajapaksa Cabinet and was awarded with Ministerial posts have decided to return to UNP. They are SB Navinna, Dinesh Gankanda and Ashoka Priyantha.

A UNP-SLFP coalition is proposed Within SLFP and positive response is building up inside SLFP circles, which if successful would result in almost the same coalition outlook before crisis began- but UNP sources say they are yet to take this up.